Roof construction



Oct. 17, 1950 J. F. BLAsKl 2,526,323

ROOF CONSTRUCTION Filed' 06f'. 18, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet '1 A-Tf 7?/ IN VEN TOR.

Oct. 17, 1950 J. F. BLAsKl RooF CONSTRUCTION 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 18, 1946 JNVENroR. 2 @M222 4 .MBV M 1f.

Patented Oct. 17, 1.9570

UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE ROOF CONSTRUCTION ohn' F. Blaski, Chicago, Ill.

Applicationctober 18, 1946, Serial No. 704,082

y (on 18e-34) 8 Claims.

` li This-invention relates to a construction for a roof or the like, and more particularly to a panel or section from which such construction may be fabricated by employing the panels in joined multiple.

YThepresent vinvention constitutes improvements on the subject matter disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 604,424, led July 1l, 1945, now PatentNo. 2,436,543 dated February 24, 1948, and the'present invention utilizes some of the fundamental characteristics described and claimed in that application.

In the building of a trussless roof, for example, namely, that type characterized by an absence of trusses and supports distributed over the building area, and in which the roof is so contoured as to enable it to be supported directly on the foundation,it is highly important that the roof possess inherent rigidity. TheV absence of trusses, cross-braces, and columns gives rise to problems which must be solved in the design of the panels or sections comprising the roof, and embracing the factors of lateral and longitudinal thrust and direct loading.

While roofs of this general type have :been heretofore known, many of them suffer from the shortcoming that insufficient attention has been devoted to increases in strength made possible by appropriate Construction of the panels proper as `contrasted with their mode of assembly. Thus roof panel sections have been proposed wherein the major or flat extent of the panel has been corrugated in conventional manner and the pan- 1 els are provided with simple flanges whereby adjoining sections may be mutually secured. Moreover, panels for trussless roofs have been proposed in which no atempt has been made to conform the Vsections-to the transverse curvature of the roof-for example, semicircular-thus failing to utilize the greater load-bearing ability of such curved sections.

My invention has'for its principal object the provision of a metallic roof or ceiling panel preferably longer than it is wide, havin-g primary Corrugations disposed with their axes longitudinally of the panel, and alternate ones of the primary .corrugations 1being provided with secondary corrugations transversely thereof, the impressingI of the panel to form the secondary oorrugations being intended to curve the panel to the contour of the roof or similar structure of which the panel is to form a part, While imparting additional ri-g- Y idity to the panel.

las -aforesaidinwhich the .secondary corrugations vary in cross-sectional Contour, -vbeing of maximum amplitude at the central axis of a primaryv corrugation and diminishing in amplitude in both plitude as to provide a preliminary selected Vcurvature to thepanel in a direction correspondingto the slope vof the roof, but' which vis capable of alteration in such curvature during erection.

In carrying'out the invention in oneY form I provide a flat sheet-of metal which may be oblong, the lon-ger dimension being intended'to lie in the direction of the pitch of the roof. The nsheet is formed into primary corrugations,l theV-` axes of the corrugations lying preferably parallel tothe longer dimension aforesaid. 'l Each alternatel corrugation, which after installation of the panel -is positioned so as to present a convex-downwardly curved surface,fis further corrugated byrcorrugations transversely thereof. rugations are of maximum amplitude-ina plane passing through lthe' longitudinal' central axis of said alternate corrugations. and diminish in amplitude towardeither side of that axis. `-By forming the secondary corrug'ations'. of gradually decreasing amplitude, the sheet forming the panel is curved inthe direction of its length, `and such curvature may vbe controlled bythe manner in which lthe amplitude of the secondary fcorrugations is Varied, not only by appropriate selection of the maximum amplitude, but of the rateof diminution thereof. Y

In the drawings, which show form of the invention:

fFig. 1 is a somewhat schematic cross-section taken transversely of a roof `fabricated from panels embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a partial plan View of a panel;

` Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing portions of two joined panels; f

Fig. 4 is a partial cross-sectional View along the line represented by the line 4--1 in Fig. 3; land Fig. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view along the line represented by 55 in Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings, the panelv I0 embodying myinvention is preferably' oblong and of sheet metal, the size'and gauge of the sheet being as required for the particular installation. The panel is'corrugated in a longitudinal direcone preferred tion to provide what are termed herein primary corrugations il and lla (Fig. 5), these-being of any desiredwidth n;` andamplitude y; for exam- Such secondary cor-` ple, in one embodiment such Width is 31A? inches and the amplitude is one inch, although these dimensions will be understood to `be exemplificative only.

Following the forming of the primary corrugation II and Ila, alternate ones IIa thereof are corrugated transversely, as best shown in Figs. 3 and 5. The transverse corrugations I2, herein termed secondary corrugations, may be of any suitable width w (Fig. 4) and are of maximum amplitude 1J (Fig. 4) in a plane passing through the longitudinal principal axis of the alternate primary corrugations I Ia, the amplitude decreasing in directions away from both sides of said plane to zero (Fig. By making the amplitude a maximum at the center of the primary corrugations I Ia, and tapering the corrugations as pointed out, the panel l is formed into an arcuate contour (Figs. l, 3, and 4) to correspond to the curvature of that portion of roof in which a panel is to be utilized. It is to be noted that by preselecting the maximum amplitude u, and by varying the rate at which the secondary corrugations are diminished in amplitude, the radius of curvature of the panel as a Whole may be accurately controlled. Not only are the secondary corrugations I2 of advantage in curvingthe panel, but substantial improvement in the strength of the sheet is achieved, the alternate corrugations Ila thus being stiffened transversely in themselves.

Preferably the corrugations I Ia are terminated at each end of the sheet by a distance suincient to allow for overlapping of a pair of panels (Fig. 4), and each sheet terminates along its longitudinal edges in plain corrugations Il to permit overlap of adjacent panels along those edges. Apertures I4 (Fig. 3) may thus be provided to receive bolts I5 for fastening adjacent panels together to extend over the desired roof area, a typical such roof, semicircular in transverse contour, being illustrated in Fig. l. In this instance all of the panels I0 are formed to the same radius of curvature. However, for a roof of semielliptical form, the several panels extending from the foundation on one side to the center-line would have varying radii of curvature, and which result may be obtained by selecting a suitable maximum amplitude and rate at which the secordary corrugations I2 diminish from maximum to zero amplitude; by varying the rate only, the maximum amplitude being the same for all panels, or by changing the maximum amplitude for each panel of different radius of curvature and utilizing the same rate of diminution of amplitude.

It will be understood, moreover, that by providing the secondary corrugations I2, the panel is capable within reasonable limits of being altered in curvature during erection. As a practical matter, even careful shop forming is never accurate to a ne degree, and any required additional bending of a panel in the field to nt actual conditions encountered is facilitated by my construction.

While I have shown a particular embodiment of my invention, it will be understood, of course, that I do not wish to be limited thereto since many modifications may be made, and I therefore contemplate by the appended claims to cover any such modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A panel adapted for use in multiple in a roof construction or the like comprising a sheet having a plurality of sinuous primary corruga- 4 tions, alternate primary corrugations each hav'- ing sinuously continuous secondary corrugations positioned with the axes thereof transversely of said primary corrugations.

2. A panel adapted for use in multiple in a roof construction or the like comprising a sheet having a plurality of substantially sinuous primary corrugations, alternate primary corrugations each having sinuously continuous secondary corrugations positioned with the axes thereof transversely of said primarycorrugations.

3. A panel adapted for use in multiple in a roof construction or the like comprising a sheet having a plurality of sinuous primary corrugations, two sets of alternate primary corrugations being disposed on opposite sides of the medial plane of the panel, one set of alternate corrugations having sinuously continuous secondary corrugations positioned with the axes thereof transversely of the primary corrugations and terminating at each end substantially at said medial plane.

4. A 'panel adapted for use in multiple in a roof construction or the like comprising a sheet having a plurality of sinuous primary corrugations, alternate primary corrugations each having sinuously continuous secondary corrugations positioned with the axes thereof transversely of the primary corrugations, the panel being of arcuate form in a direction corresponding to the axes of the primary corrugations.

5. A panel adapted for use in multiple in a roof construction or the like comprising an oblong sheet having a plurality of sinuous primary corrugations disposed longitudinally thereof, alternate primary corrugations each having sinuously continuous secondary corrugations positioned with the axes thereof transversely of the sheet, the secondary corrugations terminating inwardly of the shorter edges of the sheet, and the sheet having a plurality of spaced apertures adjacent each of its edges.

6. An arcuately-formed panel adapted for use in multiple in a roof construction or the like comprising a sheet having a plurality of sinuous primary corrugations having their axes disposed in the direction of curvature of the panel, those alternate ones of said primary corrugations which are convex in cross section toward the center of curvature of the panel being provided with sinuously continuous secondary corrugations disposed transversely of said alternate corrugations, the amplitude of said secondary corrugations being a predetermined maximum in the central longitudinal plane of each said alternate primary corrugation and the amplitude diminishing at a predetermined rate to zero on both sides away from said plane.

'7. The method of forming a corrugated structural panel having an arcuate contour in at least one direction, which method comprises corrugating a flat sheet to provide sinuous corrugations having their axes disposed in the direction in which the arcuate contour is to be imparted, and corrugating alternate ones of said iirst mentioned corrugations in a Vdirection transversely of their axes, the second mentioned corrugations being sinuously continuous and eacli having a maximum amplitude in a plane containing the axis of said alternate corrugations, and the amplitude diminishing from said maximum in directions away from both sides of said plane.

8. rThe method of forming a corrugated structural panel having an arcuate contour in at least one direction, which method comprises corrugating a at sheet to provide si'nuous primary corrugations having their axes disposed in the direction in which the arcuate contour is to be imparted, andisecondarily corrugating those a1- ternate ones-'of said first mentioned corrugations whose convex curvature lies toward the center of curvature ofy'the arcuate panel, said secondary corrugations being sinuously continuous and each having a maximum amplitude in a plane containing the axis Aof each said alternate primary corrugation, and the amplitude diminishing from said maximum in directions away from both sides of said plane; the maximum amplitude and rate of diminution thereof being selected to provide a predetermined radius of curvature to the panel.

fi JOHN F. BLASKI..

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name s Date 1,119,435 Kuhne Dec. 1, 1914 1,229,477 Kramer June 12, 1917 1,771,028 Bronson et a1 July 22, 1930 1,948,619 Knutson Feb. 27, 1934 1,977,391 Kramer Oct. 16, 1934 2,436,543 Blaski Feb. 24, 1948 

